Today I went for a nice hike; the weather was perfect for it. I passed a woman wearing a very interesting t-shirt: it had several stylized squids on it. I asked her where she got it, and she said online, at squidfire.com. So when I got home, I took a look at their site. They have a lot of squid-themed clothing, and some other fun items as well, so I’m adding them to our blogroll. I like the fact that many (perhaps all?) of their t-shirts are produced by American Apparel, which is a very labor-friendly company! I’m very tempted to get one of their tees for myself, but I’m having a hard time choosing which one.

This post isn’t about squids, but it does have a marine theme. Last weekend, I went whale watching with a friend. We booked our trip through the New England Aquarium, and it was loads of fun. The ship took us from the wharf just outside of the Aquarium to Stellwagen Bank, a marine sanctuary east of Boston.

We enjoyed the ride out, even though it was very foggy for most of the ride. As we approached the Bank, the fog began to burn off, and we soon spotted other whale watching vessels, some observing whales in action. We didn’t race over to them right away; rather, we cruised along looking for activity elsewhere. It turns out that there are established rules regarding whale watching, and I got the favorable impression that our captain observed them strictly. Before I booked the tour, I did have some misgivings about it, since I’d heard that whale watching disturbs the whales. I specifically booked through the New England Aquarium because I figured they’d behave responsibly, and I was not disappointed.

We soon found a few whales that were not circled by ships, and we moved over to their vicinity as unobtrusively as possible. In all, we saw three separate groups of humpback whales, some feeding, some with calves. There was a naturalist on board who described what we were seeing, and she did a great job! I’m really very happy with the experience (my poor photos do not do justice to all that we saw), and plan to do this again!

I’ve added the Mississippi State University Squid Module to our blog roll. It’s got all kinds of interesting information about squid on it, including a lengthy exploration of a squid dissection. Which is kind of gory, if you’re friendly with any cephalopods. They’ve also got some fun instructions for building a bean bag squid toy.